May 4
Well first, I’m sure I’m not the first one to offer today’s
greeting to you, but just in case no one has: Happy Star Wars Day – May the
Force be with you. And for all of you
Methodists and Episcopalians “And also with you.”
And if you have her email or text info, tomorrow be sure to
wish Rachel Marie a happy birthday.
My talk today “The World’s Most Stolen Art Work” was at
noon, so I did not set an alarm, I told Bonnie
we would go to breakfast in the dining room (the only place on board where you
can get free tomato juice). It is open
from 8 to 9:30, so if I’m up at 7:30 we can be there shortly after
opening. Well Mom woke up around 6:45
and decided to stay awake and crochet.
She said if she went to sleep again, we might miss the T.J. And she had to wake me, so that was a good
move on her part.
After breakfast she went walking, singing to a little Mamma
Mia (and I’ll let her tell the rest of the story). I went back to our room to rehearse once more
before my 12 o’clock talk. As I almost always
make changes, and since I am forced to use their laptop, I put my talks on a flash drive which the cruise
program administrator transfers to one of theirs. A problem arises when they bring the wrong
computer because only two of theirs are unlocked to receive files from a flash
drive. I was talking to the cruise
director after tonight’s show (Invitation to Dance). I told her about the situation and she said, “Yes
our system is old.” My personal tech
support told me the problem was the refresh rate and their system couldn’t keep
up with mine. Two more talks to go, so
we’ll make it.
Invitation to Dance is a high energy, non-stop show of
singing and dancing with a live orchestra.
We’ve seen the show often – it is a favorite of Royal Caribbean – and this
was one of the best. The neat thing, for
me anyway, is there is always a feature dance couple and they are always from
Russia. Tonight: Tatiana and Andre. On other ships with a smaller guest capacity
I’ve been able to talk to them and great memories of Samara surface. Go away Putin so we can go back!
Oh, a new addition to the staterooms is an electric pot to
heat water for tea, and I guess instant coffee. It’s a strange addition because I can
remember when you couldn’t bring a hair straightener or the plug-in coil to
heat the water, or a steamer for your clothes, or … you get the picture. I guess this one has some kind of safety
device. Anyway, this morning while
rehearsing I had a cup of English Breakfast Tea. I think tomorrow’s cuppa will be Pure Peppermint
(the label says “refreshing and helps soothe digestion” – not that mine needs
soothing).
Ok, since it’s after 9:30, I will slide off of the chair and
give the keyboard to Bonnie so we can get to bed before midnight (she just pays
closer attention to the ship’s goings on).
TTFN
Hello everybody. Sorry Amy I won’t be able to remind you of
Rachel Marie’s birthday tomorrow morning, haha, private joke!
Well, as he said I awoke about 6:45 and knowing he wanted up
at 7:30 I was afraid if I lay down we would oversleep. So I did my Bible
reading and played a game while I waited to wake him.
We showered, dressed and headed to the dining room on deck 3
arriving at 8:30. They gave us a window seat way in the back of the dining
room. I consumed one egg, one English muffin, some bacon and a tomato juice.
After breakfast I headed to deck 12 to begin my walk. On my
way to the walk I stopped at the ladies room on deck 3. I went in and took care
of business. I closed the lid on the toilet and flushed. After I flushed part
of the wall behind the toilet fell onto the toilet seat. Yikes! I never touched
it. One of the young ladies who maintains the restrooms was in there and I showed
her what happened. She said she could fix it.
So I proceeded on my way. It was supposed to be 32 but it
was a misprint and was probably about 60. But the wind was ferocious!! On one
end of the walk every time I walked on
that part it blew me so hard that it would blow the cane up in the air after I
planted it. Really crazy. I was so excited when I began my walk and rounded the
walk where I could see the movie that was playing . It was “Mama Mia”. Joy I
could sing and walk, not easy to do. Fortunately there were only a couple of
people walking so I could sing as loud as I wanted. Not quite in tune but I was
close. I was about 2/3 finished my walk and about half way through the movie
they stopped the movie, put on some commercials and then started a different movie. How Rude! Well, I finished
my walk, one mile, and headed back to the room.
I picked up my crocheting bag and headed to deck 5 to fill
my drink cup and find a seat near guest services. Today we had been at sea for
a week and it is maritime procedure to do crew drills. So they had a crew drill
and rang all the bells and whistles and crew ran around on deck 4 and 5.
Passengers were not involved.
Well, I needed to use the facilities and decided to go to
the room. It would soon be time for him to get dressed and go up anyway. I didn’t stay in the room because it was too
warm. So I went back up to 5 and waited for him to come up and then we went to
14. We tried 4 elevators before we found one that would go all the way up to
14. We arrived about 11:35. His talk is at 12. One of the other speakers is
doing her talk she was to be done at 11:45. She didn’t stop till almost 12.
(After the show this evening she came and apologized said she just got carried
away.)
Well, after she finished Dad went up so they could put his
flash drive into the computer. On the ship there are 4 laptops and only 2 of
them are unlocked so you can load a flash drive. They didn’t bring one of
those. OOPS! So Mariana had to run downstairs find a computer and come back up.
Also they were filming his talk. Supposed to show at a later time sometime on
this cruise. So Dad was restricted to where he could stand or move to during
the talk. The screen he had was the size of the portable screen you set up, at
home I’d say 8 by 10 feet. Very small and this room is a half circle with all
kinds of chairs and stools and tables in it. There were probably 75 or more
people in there and more than half could not see the screen. He finally got
started at 12:15 and talked to one. I never want to have that venue again. In addition
the whole time he was speaking some of the crew were setting up a buffet line
for the “Private Function” event after his talk. He never heard any of it.
After the talk we went to 5 had some pizza and cookies for
lunch then went to the cabin for our nap. Tonight was dress your best. Just a
step down from formal.
Well, we went to supper and got to sit in the window seat
again. The couple had gone to Chops for supper and said we should enjoy the
table. Very nice. I got a shrimp cocktail, a Greek salad, prime rib and a panna
cotta for dessert. On the plate with my prime rib were the accompanying vegetables.
Two pieces of carrot shaped like an ellipse
and one piece of broccoli. There was also a baked potato. Well, I picked up one
of the carrots slices with my fork and as I brought it to my mouth it jumped
off the fork, hit the edge of the table fell into my lap and went rolling off
into oblivion. Oh my! My piece of prime rib was one made just for Ivy, (it was
still mooing) very rare. I ate very little of it.
After supper we headed to the theater for the show. It was
very good. When we sat down the two couples beside us were having some of the
popcorn. I tapped the lady on the
shoulder and asked if it was warm. She did not speak English so she tapped her
husband and I repeated my question. He said it was warm. So we splurged and
bought a container, about 3 cups, $2.50 plus gratuities so $2.95. It was kind
of warm. We consumed most of it.
We are on deck 3 in the thester so after leaving the show we
have to go to deck 5 and walk all the way to the other end of ship to go down
to get to our room. Well, they were having a party on deck 5. It was a mass of
people. It took us probably 15 minutes to weave our way through these partying,
dancing, singing people. They were going to do a balloon drop after the party.
We finally made it through and had to try and find an elevator to take us down.
Late at night both of us are pretty tired and achy and walking the 3 flights is
difficult. We finally get an elevator and made it to our room.
Well, that is all for now. He has tomorrow off and the next
day we are in port and have a ships tour.
Love you all and miss you. Mom, Granny and Bonnie
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